Tape drives are widely used for storing information in digital form. These tape drives commonly use a storage tape having a thin film of magnetic material which receives the information. Typically, the storage tape is moved between a pair of spaced apart reels, past a data transducer to record or read back information from the storage tape.
In one type of tape drive system, one of the reels is part of the tape drive while the other reel is part of a removable cartridge. For this type of tape drive system, the reel which is a part of the tape drive is commonly referred to as a take-up reel, while the reel which is a part of the cartridge is commonly referred to as a cartridge reel. In this type of tape drive system, upon insertion of the cartridge into the tape drive, it is necessary to couple the storage tape on the cartridge reel to the take-up reel of the tape drive. Subsequently, the storage tape must be uncoupled from the take-up reel, prior to removing the cartridge from the tape drive system.
Recently, tape drive systems have been developed which automatically couple a cartridge leader on the storage tape to a drive leader which is connected to the take-up reel during insertion of the cartridge into the tape drive. One such system utilizes the movement of the cartridge into and out of the tape drive to buckle and subsequently unbuckle the cartridge leader and the drive leader. More specifically, with this system, a buckler is rotated by the cartridge during insertion of the cartridge into the tape drive to couple the drive leader to the cartridge leader. Subsequently, during ejection of the cartridge, frictional force between the tape drive and the cartridge is utilized to assist in reliably unbuckling the cartridge leader from the drive leader.
Unfortunately, with this system a relatively large force may be required to insert the cartridge into the receiver. Further, because, a frictional force is assisting in the unbuckling of the leaders, the distance in which the cartridge is ejected, as well as the ejection speed of the cartridge, is very difficult to control. Accordingly, there is a need for an easy and accurate way to couple and de-couple the cartridge leader of the storage tape and the take-up reel of tape drive.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved tape drive which automatically couples and de-couples the storage tape to the take-up reel. Another object of the present invention is to provide a tape drive having better control of the eject distance and eject speed of the cartridge. Still another object of the present invention is to provide a tape drive system which reduces the force required to insert the cartridge into the tape drive. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a tape drive system having a buckler which reliably couples and de-couples the storage tape to the take-up reel and which is relatively easy and cost efficient to manufacture and utilize.